


The Space Between Stars

by infjwrites



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Father-Daughter Relationship, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Force Ghost(s), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24407551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infjwrites/pseuds/infjwrites
Summary: The space between stars is more vast than it looks.In other words, Anakin's force ghost has a surprising amount of people to visit, advice to give, relationships to mend... he didn't realize the afterlife would be so busy.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Anakin Skywalker & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 82





	The Space Between Stars

When Leia finally stood from her desk, her back was sore and her eyes, tired.

Between rebuilding a Republic out of the ashes of a collapsed Empire and training in the ways of the Force with Luke, Leia was nearly always exhausted. She knew that some day, things would begin to settle, that some day, it would all be worth it. But for now, all she could feel was the pounding headache behind her eyes.

She rubbed her eyes; even with them closed, she could still see the paperwork she still needed to fill out. It could wait until morning, at least.

Leia dropped her hand from her face and turned to leave—then immediately startled backwards, saved from falling only by the wall behind her; her back collided against it with a thump. She didn’t move.

She wasn’t alone in her office.

There was a glowing, blue presence of a man, just by the door. A Force presence? Luke had said something about—

The man’s eyes widened. “You can see me?”

Of course she could see him; hadn’t that been obvious enough? “Who are you?” she demanded, and thankfully her voice did not betray the fear making her heart beat so violently in her chest. The way he had spoken was odd, stilted, almost like he wasn’t used to…

Her blood turned to ice. She looked him up and down, the Jedi robes, the dark hair, Luke’s blue eyes—

“I apologize for startling you,” he said, and he _did_ look apologetic. A bit like a kicked puppy. It made Leia furious.

“You’re— _him_.” She couldn’t say it. He might not look like Vader now, but he was. He always would be, to her. “What are you doing here?”

“I… am your father,” he said, as if that would explain everything.

Anger simmered to the surface of Leia’s skin, surprising in its sudden strength, born from emotions that had been stewing inside for a long time.

“ _You_ are not my father,” she rebuked viciously, jabbing an accusatory finger and relishing in how he seemed to shrink. “My father was killed, along with the rest of Alderaan, by _your_ Empire’s weapon.”

Regret was painfully clear on his face, but she didn’t care. With one more glare, she straightened up from the wall, her shoulders set.

“Leave.”

Her command dropped into the air with a deadly finality. He linked his hands together behind his back, lingering in only a second’s hesitation, before silently winking out of existence.

—————

“What are you doing here?” demanded Leia.

She had just come from an argument with Han. She was flustered and angry and, whether she would ever admit it, upset, and then she had come around the corner outside of the hangar to see a glowing, blue presence. _Of all things that that she needed_. It was the first time she had seen him since that night in her office, and she didn't want him here now any more than she had that night.

Vader stared at her a moment, as if trying to figure out whether she was really going to allow him to speak. “I was watching.”

“I sort of gathered that,” she said icily. “What I meant was: Why are you _still_ here?”

He shook his head at her, as if he couldn’t understand her venom. “I don’t mean you any harm.”

“Well,” she said, crossing her arms, her tone deliberate and harsh, “it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Hurt flashed across his expression. She didn’t know what _he_ had to be hurt about. It was the truth, wasn’t it?

 _That figures,_ she thought dryly. _Who would have thought that Darth Vader would be so easy to offend?_

“You’re right,” he responded finally. “But I don’t relish in it, Leia.”

Leia continued to glare at him, but something stopped her from leaving. Maybe it was the fact he used her name, or maybe… It was just so _unnerving,_ seeing him staring at her so earnestly, to see guilt play so openly on his face. His tone was so sincere.

Part of her wondered if it had been like that: If he had always displayed such expression, but it had just been locked away, hidden, under the blankness of the mask… but she shoved the thoughts aside. _He doesn’t deserve my sympathy,_ she told herself sternly.

“Well?” she said aloud. “Is that all?”

He considered her for a moment, then turned and stepped, looking back at where the Millennium Falcon was parked. “He does love you, you know,” he said. “The smuggler.”

Her gaze followed his in surprise, sudden sadness returning to accompany her frustration as she was reminded of their disagreement. Leia’s feet carried her closer to Vader, so she could look at the ship as well; Han was somewhere inside. “His name is _Han,_ ” said Leia, but her usual edge had dulled at the thought of him. “And how would you know?”

“There are a great many things that you do not know about me,” he said, after a moment.

“Is that so?” she said witheringly. “Well, I think I know enough.”

Neither of them mentioned the fact that, even still, she was giving no indication of leaving, and it was this that made it feel like… a truce. Sort of. For a moment, at least, they were just suspended there in the silence, coexisting.

Abruptly, Vader spoke.

“I was aware of the flaw in the Death Star,” he said, and it was maybe the one thing that could have possibly thrown Leia completely off guard. She turned to him in surprise.

“It was an inefficient weapon,” he added, almost miffed. “And unnecessarily obtrusive.”

Leia refrained from rolling her eyes. “What do you mean, you knew about the flaw?” she prompted impatiently.

He shrugged, sort of like he didn’t remember how to.

“I was there when Krennic presented the plans to the Emperor,” he said. “Straight shot to the reactor shaft… Certainly a weak point, and a useless one at that. I saw it. But no one mentioned it. At first, I thought it was a test… everything was a test, with him.” He didn’t have to say a name for Leia to know he meant Palpatine; something about his tone made a brief, dark feeling settle in her stomach. He shifted, linking his hands behind his back. “But it soon became clear to me that it was not so... obvious, to everyone else. I… decided not to say anything.”

“Wait,” said Leia, trying to understand. Her anger from earlier had vanished in her confusion: The puzzle pieces were right there, they fit perfectly, but… it couldn’t make sense, could it? “You… _wanted_ it to be destroyed?”

He glanced at her, and she glimpsed something there, some old fire of mischief or arrogance, and he said, “Well, yes.”

Leia felt like the whole world rocked beneath her. _Darth Vader,_ the Empire’s scourge… wanted their greatest weapon, their key to victory, to _fail_? No, that couldn’t be right…

( _Luke_ had _told her Vader died to save him, in the end, hadn’t he?,_ her mind said.)

Leia shook her head, dislodging the thought. “But you tried to stop us,” she said. “You nearly took out an _entire_ fleet.”

“That,” he corrected simply, “was not trying.”

For the first time, she actually didn’t know whether she wanted to scowl at him or not—her mind was spinning too quickly.

Darth Vader was the only one who survived the Death Star’s explosion; quite luckily, he had been out in space in his TIE fighter the moment Luke’s shot landed… at least, that’s what they had all thought—but maybe it wasn’t luck, after all.

“A very wise Jedi once told me that nothing happens by accident,” he said. Leia blinked, startled, and suddenly suspicious that he could read her thoughts. She turned and craned her neck up at him (he was still _so tall_ ), but he was looking out at the clouds.

“For a long time, I stopped believing it,” he continued. “It was not until that day, when I saw the plans, that I remembered… and it was not until I found out about Luke that I began to remember who _I_ was.”

There was a moment of silence, and then met her eyes. “I am sorry… sorry that it took me so long. Too long. I hope it’s… not too late. For you and I.”

Stunned into silence, all she could do was stare.

Something shifted inside of her. She didn’t stop hating him, exactly, but all of a sudden, something changed: It wasn’t Darth Vader, dutifully following the orders of Palpatine to glorify the Empire, it was Darth Vader, supporting the Empire nominally, doing what he was told because—

“Leia?”

She turned abruptly at the sound of Luke’s voice, blinking her stinging eyes. Beside her, there was now only open, empty air; Vader had vanished. Luke was walking up to her, a lopsided greeting smile on his face, but as he got closer, he grew more serious. “Hey. You alright?”

“I’m fine,” she replied automatically. But really, she didn’t know if she was or not.

She couldn’t stop imagining Anakin under Darth Vader’s mask.

**Author's Note:**

> Should motivation stick, this will be a multi-chapter fic in which Anakin next visits the characters tagged. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please consider leaving kudos or a comment <3
> 
> Also, I can not take credit for the headcanon that Vader knew about the Death Star flaw and purposefully didn't say anything; it was based off of a tumblr post I happened across and don't currently have the link for. His line about the very wise Jedi is a nod to a voice line Anakin has in Battlefront II about Qui-Gon.


End file.
